[PEN-L:2561] Re: RE: Ishmael Reed launches online magazine
Friends,
Try Reed's novel, "Japanese by Spring." A real hoot.
michael yates
Max Sawicky wrote:
Salon notes that Reed has started his own online magazine, which is at
http://www.ishmaelreedpub.com/. I urge folks to take a look at
it. It seems
first-rate.
This is indeed great news. I've been reading Reed
for years. I would highly recommended his essays.
Haven't kept up with his fiction since his first
novel ("Yellow Back Radio Broke Down"). He doesn't
fit easily into political categories, but he has an
appealing way of marrying multiculturalism with
'integrationism,' for lack of a better term. He
also deserves credit for showcasing Asian and Chicano
writers who
are otherwise commonly ignored. For his essays on
current affairs, unlike most of that genre, he
actually does research and provides sourced factual
information; what a concept.
mbs
[PEN-L:1196] Lenape civilization
From the NY Times, Nov. 19, 1998: "For years, Timothy J. Stoddard has tried to be noticed in his campaign for American Indian rights. A member of the Mohegan tribe, he and other American Indians sought to celebrate tribal prayer and water ceremonies last year on Liberty Island, home to the Statue of Liberty, but Federal authorities prevented the news media from filming the Indians. "Yesterday, Mr. Stoddard sought revenge of a legal sort. He filed suit in Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleging that Liberty Island was originally owned by Mohegans and other Northeastern tribes like the Manhattans and was never properly sold to the United States." - (Below are the opening pages of a new book, "Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898". The authors are a couple of leftist professors, Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace, who have been working on a history of NYC for the last 20 years. The next and concluding volume will bring NYC history up to the present.) FIRST IMPRESSIONS "O this is Eden!" exulted the Dutch poet Jacob Steendam. A "terrestrial Canaan," echoed the English essayist Daniel Denton, "where the Land floweth with milk and honey." That was the usual reaction of the Europeans who began to settle the lower Hudson Valley and the islands of New York's harbor, three and a half centuries ago. Nowhere else in North America would the beauty and abundance of the physical environment evoke such consistently extravagant praise. Initially it was what Denton called the "sweetness of the Air" that bewitched explorers and travelers. "Dry, sweet, and healthy," Adriaen van der Donck wrote. "Sweet and fresh," the missionary Jaspar Danckaerts noted in his journal as his ship came up past Sandy Hook. "Much like that of the best parts of France," declared the Rev. John Miller. What could produce such air, or where it came from, was the subject of extensive speculation. Miller traced it to the surrounding "hilly, woody Country, full of Lakes and great Values, which receptacles are the Nurseries, Forges and Bellows of the Air, which they first suck in and contract, then discharge and ventilate with a fiercer dilation." Denton, too, emphasized the region's sweeping woods and fields, "curiously bedecked with Roses, and an innumerable multitude of delightful Flowers" whose fragrance could be detected far out at sea. The effect was magical, and there was speculation that it might cure colds, consumption, and other respiratory ailments. But it was the miraculous size and quantity and variety of things--the sheer prodigality of life--that left the most lasting impression. Travelers spoke of vast meadows of grass "as high as a mans middle" and forests with towering stands of walnut, cedar, chestnut, maple, and oak. Orchards bore apples of incomparable sweetness and "pears larger than a fist." Every spring the hills and fields were dyed red with ripening strawberries, and so many birds filled the woods "that men can scarcely go through them for the whistling, the noise, and the chattering." Boats crossing the bay were escorted by schools of playful whales, seals, and porpoises. Twelve-inch oysters and six-foot lobsters crowded offshore waters, and so many fish thrived in streams and ponds that they could be taken by hand. Woods and tidal marshlands teemed with bears, wolves, foxes, raccoons, otters, beavers, quail, partridge, forty-pound wild turkeys, doves "so numerous that the light can hardly be discerned where they fly," and countless deer "feeding, or gamboling or resting in the shades in full view." Wild swans were so plentiful "that the bays and shores where they resort appear as if they were dressed in white drapery." Blackbirds roosted together in such numbers that one hunter killed 170 with a single sixteen--pound gray geese in the same way. "There are some shot; another bagged eleven persons who imagine that the animals of the country will be destroyed in time," mused Van der Donck, "but this is an unnecessary anxiety." IMMIGRANT ICE The formation of this lush ecosystem had begun seventy-five thousand years earlier, when packs of glaciers crept down from Labrador into the almost featureless plain that then stretched east of the Allegheny Mountains to the Atlantic, and halted in the middle of modern New York City. Approximately fifty thousand years ago, a sheet of ice a thousand feet thick lay across the area. Its immense weight, and the continual flow of ice from the north, crushed and flayed the land beneath, depressing riverbeds, scooping out deep valleys, and dragging along boulders, gravel, sand, and clay like a huge conveyor belt. In parts of Manhattan and the Bronx, it peeled away everything above the bedrock-layers of gneiss, marble, and schist, five hundred million years old, that now lie naked to the passing eye, scarred and battered by their ordeal. So much of the earth's water was captured in this and other ice sheets that the sea level fell three hundred feet or
[PEN-L:1195] Red Ecofin
November 23, 1998 [The Times, London] EU socialists set out vision of harmony FROM CHARLES BREMNER IN BRUSSELS A MANIFESTO for a socialist Europe with more harmonised taxes and shared economic policies - including higher public spending - was launched last night by Britain and the ten other left-of-centre governments that dominate the EU. Backers of the plan, which advocates some higher taxes, also reflect a push for Euro-wide wage deals and cross-border collective bargaining - which would probably be met by British hostility. But the blueprint was greeted by Tory anger last night, with predictions that industry would be hit and jobs destroyed. The programme: The New European Way - Economic Reform in the Framework of Monetary Union, calls itself a "set of common rules for the economic and social wellbeing of European citizens" and has taken on special force with the leftward swing in Europe since the election of Germany's Red-Green coalition in September. Drafted partly by British officials, the manifesto blends new Labour-style rhetoric on reform with promises of closer budgetary and tax co-ordination that spring from the old-left socialists of Germany and France. The goal of the new socialist Europe should be "strong and sustainable economic development and full employment", it says. Among its more controversial demands is that the European Central Bank should take into account the need for growth and not just stopping inflation, when it sets monetary policy. Presenting the paper, Rudolf Edlinger, the Austrian Finance Minister, said the governments in monetary union were determined to push for more tax harmonisation - including higher taxes on capital and lower charges on wages. Monetary union, which starts on January 1, would "make it imperative to start co-ordinating the sphere of taxation", he said. "The social democrat governments will also have to look at harmonising prices and wage policy." The manifesto is seen among continental left-wing parties as a vehicle for Britain to associate itself more closely with the 11 states about to embrace the euro. The document was issued as Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, was meeting his German counterpart Oskar Lafontaine and other socialist ministers ahead of the first session of the EU's economic chiefs since the German election greatly reinforced the left-wing tide in EU government. The first "Red Ecofin", as the new council has been dubbed, is to start after a session of the euro-11 group of single currency states, from which Mr Brown is excluded. Today's Ecofin will see a first showdown between Britain - along with five other northern EU states that want to freeze the EU budget at the turn of the century - and the poorer southern nations, which are demanding a big rise in spending. British spokesmen insisted that the New European Way amounted to no break with existing Labour policy. But some British officials have made no secret of their qualms about the detail - especially over taxation. The manifesto contains no mention of a common wages policy, but Herr Edlinger's mention of the subject reflected a push being led by Herr Lafontaine for closer co-ordination of wage agreements across industry in the euro zone. This would require cross-border collective bargaining between employers and unions - an idea that would probably be anathema to the British Government. Tory Eurosceptics last night declared that the plan would lead to job losses and higher taxation. Michael Trend, the shadow spokesman on Europe, said: "The lurch to the left will increase taxes, hamper industry and destroy jobs in Britain and across Europe." ### Paris, Monday, November 23, 1998 EU Socialists Seek 'New European Way' Finance Ministers to Focus on Labor Policy By Barry James, International Herald Tribune BRUSSELS - Socialist-led European Union governments have pledged to increasingly pursue common policies on taxation, wages and prices when the single currency, the euro, comes into effect on Jan. 1, Finance Minister Rudolf Edlinger of Austria said Sunday. Speaking on the eve of a meeting of EU finance ministers here, Mr. Edlinger said that although tax, wage and price policy remained the prerogative of the national governments, the completion of economic and monetary union would inevitably lead to greater ''harmonization'' of policies. Mr. Edlinger was introducing what he called a discussion document, ''The New European Way,'' approved by socialist ministers who now dominate the EU's policy-setting finance council. The document, which sets out the path to ''economic reform in the framework of EMU,'' is orthodox from a monetarist standpoint. It glosses over the debate about the policy mix between the growth oriented policies sought by several socialist governments and the independent role of the new European Central Bank in creating conditions of monetary stability and low inflation. But Mr. Edlinger said the document
[PEN-L:1194] Emergency civil liberties appeal for Jim C
Comment on Barkley's Comments (Jim Craven) 1) Without painting a broad brush for all administrators, I do believe that Plato's axiom--"Those who seek power are invariably the least fit to wield it"--does indeed apply to many if not most of the administrators with whom I have had dealings or have met. It takes a certain sense of self-importance, narcissism, megalomania to actively seek and exercise power over large numbers of people. Ask the average person: would you like to have anyone to have arbitrary and capricious power over you? the answer would be obvious--even when administrators are asked. Well, then why would someone want over others--arbitrary and capricious powers--that which they wouldn't want exercised over themselves? 2) Secondly, although it is absolutely true that tenure can be and often is used to protect incompetent or abusive or sycophantic faculty, it was designed to be used--and has been used--to protect the opposite--free and controversial thought, competence, just cause activism etc. Tenure is not as iron-clad as some outside academia think. Even tenured, faculty may be fired for "cause" with the administrators generally defining "cause" and controlling the mechanisms of dismissal review and/or possessing enough financial clout to bankrupt anyone who dares to take them on in Court. Generally, tenured faculty may be fired for: a) moral turpitude; b) gross, documentable, repeated incompetence with refusal to remediate; c) program cuts (real or engineered) and, d) insubordination. In my case, the Administration is trying to set up an unconscionable directive and when and if I disobey it, I will be charged with "insubordination" and then State resources and my own special AG (Jim Tuttle, who by the way was also involved in a lawsuit involving my wife who sued against the College--beofre I was tenured--for racial, age and geneder discrimination with the result of a $165,000 settlement against the College) will atempt to bankrupt me as I take them on in Court (This has been the modus operandi in several recent firings--all minorities). 3) There was a celebrated case at this College involving a faculty member who used State resources to collect child pornography. Not only was he collecting commercial child porn, he was posing as an adolsecent to lure teenage girls to send polaroids via internet according to press reports and the Washington State Patrol Dectectives. It took a Washington State Auditor's subpoena to enter his computer and since the subpoena was mishandled he beat the rap but a separate ethics complaint found him guilty. He was a favored insider, the College Admin under the previous President actively blocked the investigation and prosecution of him. He was also very close with the previous Dean who has been canned (and sent to another Washington State College to do more damage) and that Dean, was a very close friend and associate of Interim Vice-President Ramsey who know holds his position for one-year. By the way, I was the Whistleblower on the case involving Child pornography but I did it in the open, due process was followed and the stuff he was caught with (over 1700 files) would be enough to be gone for anyone but a favored insider and toady/sycophant. He is still on faculty. 4) further, the new President Tana Hasart has previously claimed to support my activism, knowing full well it is with College resources (Under the Diminimus rule of the Washington State Government we are allowed to use State Resources for outside causes--especially those that gives us skills and knowledge to bring into the classroom) and I openly sign my name and invite a lawsuit against me for libel or slander if someone feels that is what I have done; the College has no liability from my actions and they know it. Further I have in e-mails praise from President Hasart for my activism and exposing corruption and violations of due process etc at the College saying that changes were being made that ought to "affirm" my positions and activism. 5) Adminstrators hate tenure and they are trying to destroy it anywhere and everywhere. Without it radical scholars like Michael P and Barkley and so many others would surely be driven out of academia and worse. Further, it is the tenured faculty--the one's who have the guts to actually use their tenure rights--that find hidden pots of money that administrator's typically love, that fight due process issues fro non-tenured faculty, that engage in activism that surely would bring down the powers of the State for dismissal etc. Just as not all administrators--there has to be an administration separate from faculty for many duties--should not be painted with the broad brush of scum, megalomaniacs etc just because a large percentage of them are probably that, so all tenured academics should not be painted with the broad brush to be included with the academics who use tenure to protect
[PEN-L:1193] Re: Emergency civil liberties appeal for Jim Craven's right to privacy
I am not going to reproduce here my message to the Clark College president. But I shall note that I included in it a suggestion that Interim Vice President Ramsey be removed from office for his abuse of academic freedom. BTW, here at James Madison University we have finally succeeded in getting our longtime president, Ronald Carrier removed (forced to retire actually). An economist, he had been in power for 27 years, had become corrupt and megalomaniacal, and had taken to trying to fire faculty critical of him, including those with tenure (attempted to eliminate the whole physics department just to get at one critic, a close friend of mine). It took his involvement in a murder-prostitution scandal to finally force him out, no shit! Given what was going on here, I know that if I did not have tenure I would be currently unemployed, at least at this institution. That is a fact that should be taken into account when anybody debates with me about academic tenure. I have seen up close and personal, power hungry administrators going after faculty they don't like for political and personal reasons, including tenured ones. These bozos will use any weapon they can get their hands on to get their way. This is my major problem with the critics of tenure. Just who do they think is going to be firing faculty and on what grounds? Some of these administrators are just plain scum and should not have more power than they already do. Lots of them are just wannabe corporate CEOs and plantation owners. Barkley Rosser On Tue, 24 Nov 1998 17:14:15 +1100 Ajit Sinha [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: At 18:30 22/11/98 -0500, you wrote: Anyway, here is a copy of the letter I sent. If the address was right, then it went to the right place. Professor Tana Hasart President, Clark College Dear Professor Hasart, I have learnt that there is an attempt to suppress the freedom of speech of a senior academic of your college, Professor Jim Craven, due to his unorthodox political views; as it appears from the below cited communication from Chuck Ramsey, Interim Vice President of Instruction. Professor Craven is well known in the international academic cerciles for being a good scholar and a man of high integrity. If freedom of speech is not secure in an academic institution, then where should we look for it? I think this sort of actions do not augur well for Western democracy. And definitely gives a bad name to your college. I hope you will intervene personally and restore Professor Craven's right to free speech without intimidation and harassment. Thank you. Sincerely, Dr. Ajit Sinha FROM: Chuck Ramsey, Interim Vice President of Instruction TO: Professor Jim Craven "We have received a complaint/expression of concern about your use of College e-mail. So that I may gather relevant information about the complaint, you are hereby directed to provide paper copies of all e-mails you have sent or received, using College e-mail or other electronic resources, that name or refer, directly or indirectly, to Kevin Annett. You are directed to provide paper copies of all these e-mails to the Office of Instruction no later than 5:00 p.m., Tuesday, November 24, 1998." In the course of getting to know Jim Craven, I have been made privy to his various battles in Indian country and academia. Jim is a Blackfoot Indian who teaches economics at Clark College in Washington State. Lately fights in these two worlds have become meshed in such a way as to threaten his employment. These are the facts. Jim has been embroiled in various battles with the College administration for a number of years, mainly revolving around issues like corruption, due process, hiring and academic standards. Jim is not only an outspoken radical, but has a blunt and uncompromising style. His tenure has protected him, but he has become such a thorn in the side of the administration that they are trying to fire him nonetheless. Part of the ammunition they are trying to use against him involves his role in exposing a former cleric named Kevin Annett. As an expert witness in an inquiry on residential schools in Canada (based on dubious credentials, as it turned out), Annett used his access to testimony in order to promote his career. The material on videotapes of horribly abused Canadian Indians found their way into an article Annett wrote for some journal. The material was used without the permission of the Indian victims and activists, who are organized in a group called Circle of Justice. Annett was once a member of the group but has been expelled for his high-handed behavior. Jim has been a forceful spokesman for the Circle of Justice people and has written both private and public email making their case for returning the tapes. Annett has now contacted Clark College and demand that they do something about Jim, whose criticisms of Annett have made their
[PEN-L:1192] Re: residential school activists on hit list (fwd)
Dear Friends on Pen-l I am writing to thank all of you who wrote in to the President of my College in support of this struggle in which I am involved. From the material below, it should be clear that this is about more that academic freedom, freedom from harassment in the workplace, freedom of candid academic exhanges and thought, freedom of activism in just causes, freedom from workplace surveillance as an instrument for other agenda, differential treatment of favored insiders versus troublesome outsiders by Administrators, due process etc. Based solely on a complaint by Kevin Annett living in Canada and a threat of a lawsuit, Annett alleges defammation, maligning reputation etc. I have repeatedly asked him to sue me as truth is an absolute defense in libel and slander. He did not provide even one sample e-mail that he feels shows maligning and defammation but instead, called for the College to go through all my e-mails (e-mails never sent to him and that he has never seen) instead of filing a proper legal action and subsequent motions for discovery. Ordinarily the Administration would have asked him to provide hos own copies of any e-mail he feels to be defammatory and/or tell him about academic freedom. By the way, this is a guy who recently publicly slandered actual victims of Residential School Abuse as tied-in with pedophile rings--the same victims who had expelled him from the Circle of Justice. Now here is why this request is particularly damaging. As can be illustrated from below, this Annett openly and callously leaked out sensitive information to which he was privy and compromised activists and covert operations by Indians who can go where he could never go. Further, his name was never even mentioned as a candidate for a hit--only mine--but to do self-promotion and to feed his narcissism and credentials in this market niche--Residential School Abuse--he put out the following. Now the College wants all e-mails many of which were private and never even addressed to him and that he has never even seen and I fear the worst in terms of even more damage to particular individuals and activism. This is not about some personality dispute; this is fundamental and real lives are on the line here. No hyperbole, just a fact. The Administration, presently involved in two lawsuits against the College , the Trustees and President, claims to be only interested in determining legal liability. They claim that my own activism on other issues--due process, insider hiring, academic standards, differential treatment of employees, unconscionable firings, hidden funds and slush funds while claiming pay increases may be problematic etc--have nothing to do with acquiesing to this unconscionable request of Annett. Let me quote from a sworn deposition from a former Dean in a personnel matter involving me (This Dean was canned and my battles with him had something to do with it): "I did, in fact, ask our state attorney who handles Craven affairs--that's different from our state attorney general who handles everything else from the college--a man named Jim Tuttle who is stationed up in Seattle. I did ask him what kind of protection I could get from the state. His reaction was legally there was nothing the state attorney could do, that I would have to handle thoe affairs on my own." (Deposition of Dean Richard Fulton p. 10) This is the College's way of "handling affairs on their own." and they don't care who is put at risk or what cases are compromised/ I will write all of you individually to thank you when my e-mail is no longer being screened. Jim Craven fyi Greetings Kevin, We will not be posting this, as we do not have permission from Jim Craven to do so. has informed me that he has already written you a letter expressing our concerns, so I will not repeat that here. I would like to add, however, that you do *not* have permission to broadcast my full name in any capacity unless you have contacted me and obtained that permission. If my name is to be attached to any posting, I expect to be consulted to make sure it is OK to do so. Although all S.I.S.I.S. members have, at various times, signed our names to S.I.S.I.S. correspondence, we also have sought some degree of anonymity in terms of not identifying any one person with S.I.S.I.S. In future, please consider this when releasing letters written to S.I.S.I.S. Thank you for your attention to this. Regards, Sept. 1, 1998 Dear I want to share with you information I've just received that needs to be circulated through your network, if you're willing. I received a call today from Jim Craven, a Blackfoot friend who served as a Panel Judge at our International Tribunal into the residential schools last June. Jim says that he spoke yesterday to a Vancouver elder from a local band, who is closely connected to the top native brass in B.C. This source claims that both Jim and I are on a "hit
[PEN-L:1191] Russia: Yeltsin's illness spells disaster
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1998 From: Fred Weir in Moscow MOSCOW (HT Nov 23) -- In what has become a familiar occurrence of late, Russian President Boris Yeltsin was rushed to the hospital Monday. His spokesman said he is suffering from pneumonia. The Kremlin was quick to downplay this latest in a string of health problems for the 67-year old leader. Mr. Yeltsin's spokesman said the President was not too ill to fulfill his duties, and that he met in the hospital Monday afternoon with visiting Chinese President Jiang Zemin. But analysts say the depressing downward spiral of Mr. Yeltsin's health is taking a toll on Russia's fragile political stability. In recent months the ailing President has appeared rarely in public, and even on those occasions has seemed stilted, feeble and disoriented. "The president is no longer the president. It is clear he can no longer fulfill his functions," says Viktor Kremeniuk, an analyst at the Institute of Canada-USA Studies in Moscow. "This is yet another demonstration of how central the president is in Russia's Constitutional system," he says. "Without Yeltsin on the job, nothing gets done. So his illness is worsening our social and political crisis -- as he goes, so goes the country." Mr. Yeltsin had open-heart surgery two years ago, and has since been regularly sidelined by what his aides call minor illnesses. But Russia's political and economic crisis is growing critical. Without a strong President at the helm, the country appears to be drifting into a harsh and turbulent winter. The government of Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov has restored a semblance of stability following a near meltdown of the economy in August, but has not enacted any comprehensive program to extract Russia from its crisis. The apparently political murder of a leading liberal lawmaker, Galina Staravoitova, at the weekend has greatly heightened tensions and left many Russians convinced the country is headed for catastrophe and the return of dictatorship. "Extremists are already banging on the gates of power," says Mr. Kremeniuk. "Primakov has very little time to do something, and the chances of escaping collapse are getting worse every day." -- Gregory Schwartz Department of Political Science York University 4700 Keele St. Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3 Canada tel: (416) 736-5265 fax: (416) 736-5686
[PEN-L:1190] Jim Craven's email address/correction
It is: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Protests should be directed to: President Tana Hasart: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Louis Proyect (http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)
[PEN-L:1189] Russia: IMF Leaves without Offering New Deal
--4E12C7D109CECBB307F2D21F Tue., Nov. 24, 1998 at: NY 6:55 a.m. / Lon 11:55 a.m. / Pra 12:55 p.m. Mos 2:55 p.m. || IMF Leaves Russia without Offering New Deal MOSCOW, Nov. 24, 1998 -- (Agence France Presse) A top International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission left Moscow on Tuesday having refused to extend a fresh financial lifeline to the Russian government which is desperately short of funds. Russian Cabinet ministers pressed the IMF team to reschedule repayment of nearly $5 billion in old loans that come due next year. Moscow also hopes that the fund will make at least part payment of new loans that would help plug holes in next year's budget. But in an interview published on Tuesday, Russia's chief IMF negotiator gave a gloomy synopsis of the talks, revealing that the two sides had been unable to agree on either front. "They are delaying talks about the concrete size of a future loan and our repayment schedule of earlier loans until a later day," Deputy Finance Minister Oleg Vyugin said in an interview with Moscow's Vremya daily. "I am convinced that next year we will not receive as large a loan as is currently being written into the budget," Vyugin said. "It is clear from the official memorandum on the talk's results that the IMF envisions a tighter budget than we do." Vyugin said fund officials thought that Russia had overestimated next year's revenues by about 40 billion rubles ($2.4 billion). The government, despite promising a new economic course to arrest Russia's breathtaking financial decline, is expected to follow IMF prescriptions in drawing up its critical 1999 budget in order to maintain a glimmer of hope for further financing. "We need to clearly make sure that our budget will first guarantee the minimal social guarantees so that the country can remain stable. Then we need to finance the army," Vyugin said. "Everything else must be financed only as far as revenues allow," he added. Fund officials have not yet scheduled a return date to Moscow, although Russian officials predict future negotiations may be held in Russia next month. ( (c) 1998 Agence France Presse) -- Gregory Schwartz Department of Political Science York University 4700 Keele St. Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3 Canada tel: (416) 736-5265 fax: (416) 736-5686 mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] web: http://www.yorku.ca/dept/polisci --4E12C7D109CECBB307F2D21F HTML CENTERFONT FACE="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"FONT COLOR="#FF"FONT SIZE=-2Tue., Nov. 24, 1998 at: NYnbsp; 6:55 a.m. / Lon 11:55 a.m. / Pra 12:55 p.m. Mos 2:55 p.m./FONT/FONT/FONT/CENTER CENTERFONT SIZE=-1||/FONT/CENTER PFONT FACE="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"FONT SIZE=+1IMF Leaves Russia without Offering New Deal/FONT/FONT PMOSCOW, Nov. 24, 1998 -- (Agence France Presse) A top International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission left Moscow on Tuesday having refused to extend a fresh financial lifeline to the Russian government which is desperately short of funds. PRussian Cabinet ministers pressed the IMF team to reschedule repayment of nearly $5 billion in old loans that come due next year. PMoscow also hopes that the fund will make at least part payment of new loans that would help plug holes in next year's budget. PBut in an interview published on Tuesday, Russia's chief IMF negotiator gave a gloomy synopsis of the talks, revealing that the two sides had been unable to agree on either front. P"They are delaying talks about the concrete size of a future loan and our repayment schedule of earlier loans until a later day," Deputy Finance Minister Oleg Vyugin said in an interview with Moscow's Vremya daily. P"I am convinced that next year we will not receive as large a loan as is currently being written into the budget," Vyugin said. "It is clear from the official memorandum on the talk's results that the IMF envisions a tighter budget than we do." PVyugin said fund officials thought that Russia had overestimated next year's revenues by about 40 billion rubles ($2.4 billion). PThe government, despite promising a new economic course to arrest Russia's breathtaking financial decline, is expected to follow IMF prescriptions in drawing up its critical 1999 budget in order to maintain a glimmer of hope for further financing. P"We need to clearly make sure that our budget will first guarantee the minimal social guarantees so that the country can remain stable. Then we need to finance the army," Vyugin said. P"Everything else must be financed only as far as revenues allow," he added. PFund officials have not yet scheduled a return date to Moscow, although Russian officials predict future negotiations may be held in Russia next month. I( (c) 1998 Agence France Presse)/I P-- BRGregory Schwartz BRDepartment of Political Science BRYork University BR4700 Keele St. BRToronto, Ontario BRM3J 1P3 BRCanada Ptel:nbsp; (416) 736-5265 BRfax:nbsp; (416) 736-5686 BRmail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:1188] Re: Jim Craven's email
At 12:59 AM 11/24/98 -0800, you wrote: Please send me the most current email for James Craven. The email listed for him on the Pen-L subscription list does not seem to work. He seems to be under a strong attack from the administration at Clark and I want to send him a letter of support. Peter Bohmer Jim's email address is [EMAIL PROTECTED] And he does teach in the US, at Clark College in Washington State. By the way, the response to this appeal has been excellent. A number of PEN-L'ers (Starbird, Perelman, Rosser, Sinha, Tripp) have already written powerful statements and hopefully they will make a difference. Lou Louis Proyect (http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)
[PEN-L:1187] Re: global exchange
Welcome Kevin! At 21:28 23/11/98 -0800, you wrote: Kevin Danaher of Global Exchange is joining on to pen-l. Perhaps his presence will help us to become more active in contributing to the protests vs. sweatshops, the world bank, imf et al. -- Michael Perelman Tom Kruse Casilla 5812 / Cochabamba, Bolivia Tel/Fax: (591-4) 248242 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:1186] Jim Craven's email
Please send me the most current email for James Craven. The email listed for him on the Pen-L subscription list does not seem to work. He seems to be under a strong attack from the administration at Clark and I want to send him a letter of support. Peter Bohmer
[PEN-L:1184] Re: Emergency civil liberties appeal for Jim Craven'sright to privacy
At 18:30 22/11/98 -0500, you wrote: Anyway, here is a copy of the letter I sent. If the address was right, then it went to the right place. Professor Tana Hasart President, Clark College Dear Professor Hasart, I have learnt that there is an attempt to suppress the freedom of speech of a senior academic of your college, Professor Jim Craven, due to his unorthodox political views; as it appears from the below cited communication from Chuck Ramsey, Interim Vice President of Instruction. Professor Craven is well known in the international academic cerciles for being a good scholar and a man of high integrity. If freedom of speech is not secure in an academic institution, then where should we look for it? I think this sort of actions do not augur well for Western democracy. And definitely gives a bad name to your college. I hope you will intervene personally and restore Professor Craven's right to free speech without intimidation and harassment. Thank you. Sincerely, Dr. Ajit Sinha FROM: Chuck Ramsey, Interim Vice President of Instruction TO: Professor Jim Craven "We have received a complaint/expression of concern about your use of College e-mail. So that I may gather relevant information about the complaint, you are hereby directed to provide paper copies of all e-mails you have sent or received, using College e-mail or other electronic resources, that name or refer, directly or indirectly, to Kevin Annett. You are directed to provide paper copies of all these e-mails to the Office of Instruction no later than 5:00 p.m., Tuesday, November 24, 1998." In the course of getting to know Jim Craven, I have been made privy to his various battles in Indian country and academia. Jim is a Blackfoot Indian who teaches economics at Clark College in Washington State. Lately fights in these two worlds have become meshed in such a way as to threaten his employment. These are the facts. Jim has been embroiled in various battles with the College administration for a number of years, mainly revolving around issues like corruption, due process, hiring and academic standards. Jim is not only an outspoken radical, but has a blunt and uncompromising style. His tenure has protected him, but he has become such a thorn in the side of the administration that they are trying to fire him nonetheless. Part of the ammunition they are trying to use against him involves his role in exposing a former cleric named Kevin Annett. As an expert witness in an inquiry on residential schools in Canada (based on dubious credentials, as it turned out), Annett used his access to testimony in order to promote his career. The material on videotapes of horribly abused Canadian Indians found their way into an article Annett wrote for some journal. The material was used without the permission of the Indian victims and activists, who are organized in a group called Circle of Justice. Annett was once a member of the group but has been expelled for his high-handed behavior. Jim has been a forceful spokesman for the Circle of Justice people and has written both private and public email making their case for returning the tapes. Annett has now contacted Clark College and demand that they do something about Jim, whose criticisms of Annett have made their mark. This is a communication that Jim just received from a Clark College administrator: FROM: Chuck Ramsey, Interim Vice President of Instruction TO: Professor Jim Craven "We have received a complaint/expression of concern about your use of College e-mail. So that I may gather relevant information about the complaint, you are hereby directed to provide paper copies of all e-mails you have sent or received, using College e-mail or other electronic resources, that name or refer, directly or indirectly, to Kevin Annett. You are directed to provide paper copies of all these e-mails to the Office of Instruction no later than 5:00 p.m., Tuesday, November 24, 1998." Jim has asked me to contact people wide and far to send email to Clark College to protest this violation of his political expression and right to privacy. The school has no right to demand that he turn over his private email. Jim is even conscientious enough to include the words "My Employer has no association with my private/protected OPINION" at the end of all his communications. Email supporting Jim's right to privacy should be sent to President Tana Hasart ([EMAIL PROTECTED]). Louis Proyect (http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)
[PEN-L:1183] Re: Emergency civil liberties appeal for Jim Craven'sright to privacy
Isn't Jim teaching somewhere in Canada? Could you please confirm that the e-mail for the President of the college you have given below is correct. Cheers, ajit sinha At 18:30 22/11/98 -0500, you wrote: In the course of getting to know Jim Craven, I have been made privy to his various battles in Indian country and academia. Jim is a Blackfoot Indian who teaches economics at Clark College in Washington State. Lately fights in these two worlds have become meshed in such a way as to threaten his employment. These are the facts. Jim has been embroiled in various battles with the College administration for a number of years, mainly revolving around issues like corruption, due process, hiring and academic standards. Jim is not only an outspoken radical, but has a blunt and uncompromising style. His tenure has protected him, but he has become such a thorn in the side of the administration that they are trying to fire him nonetheless. Part of the ammunition they are trying to use against him involves his role in exposing a former cleric named Kevin Annett. As an expert witness in an inquiry on residential schools in Canada (based on dubious credentials, as it turned out), Annett used his access to testimony in order to promote his career. The material on videotapes of horribly abused Canadian Indians found their way into an article Annett wrote for some journal. The material was used without the permission of the Indian victims and activists, who are organized in a group called Circle of Justice. Annett was once a member of the group but has been expelled for his high-handed behavior. Jim has been a forceful spokesman for the Circle of Justice people and has written both private and public email making their case for returning the tapes. Annett has now contacted Clark College and demand that they do something about Jim, whose criticisms of Annett have made their mark. This is a communication that Jim just received from a Clark College administrator: FROM: Chuck Ramsey, Interim Vice President of Instruction TO: Professor Jim Craven "We have received a complaint/expression of concern about your use of College e-mail. So that I may gather relevant information about the complaint, you are hereby directed to provide paper copies of all e-mails you have sent or received, using College e-mail or other electronic resources, that name or refer, directly or indirectly, to Kevin Annett. You are directed to provide paper copies of all these e-mails to the Office of Instruction no later than 5:00 p.m., Tuesday, November 24, 1998." Jim has asked me to contact people wide and far to send email to Clark College to protest this violation of his political expression and right to privacy. The school has no right to demand that he turn over his private email. Jim is even conscientious enough to include the words "My Employer has no association with my private/protected OPINION" at the end of all his communications. Email supporting Jim's right to privacy should be sent to President Tana Hasart ([EMAIL PROTECTED]). Louis Proyect (http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)
